This is an incredibly impressive set of blue plaques to find along a single wall.
It reads like a who's who of comedy and light entertainment, so long as you're of a certain age, and appears in a highly appropriate location in southwest London facing the Thames. It's a somewhat skewed selection, more ITV than BBC and with Irene Handl the sole female representative, so fails to fully reflect the history of the site. But I hadn't been expecting to stumble upon this cacklesome dozen, and now all I have to do is try to persuade you not to bother coming to look for yourselves.
I found the plaques in Teddington facing the whitewater cascade of Teddington Weir, the Thames's upper tidal limit. Close by is TeddingtonLock and also the only footbridge between Richmond and Kingston, a convenient link to the fine dogwalking territory of Ham Lands. Boatowners at Teddington Harbour have a chandlery to sell them ropes and lubrication, plus two characterful pubs which take full advantage of their riverside location. I turned up during the fortnightly traders market at The Anglers which was selling nut butters, vegan doughnuts and hand-printed dinosaur t-shirts, so very much ticking all TW11 boxes.
And yes, if we're in Teddington then the iconic location with the plaques must be Teddington Studios which for the best part of a century churned out a memorable range of classics from silent films to much-loved TV series, for example The Avengers. The studios began small after a stockbroker hired out his riverfront property to a minor film company, and rapidly expanded after Warner Brothers took the lease in 1931. And Edward and Mrs Simpson. Production was halted for four years when a V1 flying bomb scored a direct hit on two stages, and went on hiatus again when the Hawker Aircraft Company briefly took over. And Goodnight Sweetheart. But things really took off in 1958 when ABC adapted the studios for television and started making programmes for the fledgling ITV. And The World At War.
From 1968 this was the main production base for Thames Television, the capital's weekday ITV franchise. And Van der Valk. This was when the drama-entertainment conveyor belt really stepped up, with stars easily tempted to this compact set-up on the outskirts of London. And Rainbow. Benny Hill lived a couple of streets downriver so the location suited him perfectly. And The Sooty Show. Teddington boasted eight studios of various sizes, the largest of which could seat an audience of 500. And This Is Your Life. Programmes were also made for other channels, indeed that's why Monty Python's famous fish-slapping dance was filmed beside Teddington Lock. And Bless This House. Just imagine the light entertainment highfliers who must have brushed shoulders over meat and two veg in the studio's restaurant block overlooking the river. And Minder.
Everything changed in 1993 when Thames lost their ITV franchise to Carlton forcing Teddington Studios to go independent. And Birds of a Feather. Investment became more hit and miss and some of the smaller studios were hired out to new digital channels. And The Shopping Channel. Then in 2005 the Pinewood Studios Group took over, but didn't do very much with it, until it was finally decided the entire operation should be closed down. And The IT Crowd. On 21st November 2014 the very last programme to be filmed here, ironically, was an episode of Still Open All Hours. And My Family. And yes, you've probably guessed by now that the site was promptly sold off for housing, and if you visit today all you find are some upscale blocks of flats named Teddington Riverside. And Magpie.
They're quite bland, both inside and out, with unremarkable brick exteriors and muted slate grey kitchens. And Kilroy. Car parking is hidden away underneath, a concierge keeps an eye on things and not everything's sold yet so the marketing suite remains operational. And Pop Idol. But on the bright side there's no huge security gate to bar access so anyone can step off Broom Road and walk past the apartments (and a cut-out of Ricky Gervais) to explore the pristine lawns beyond. And The Office. Admittedly there are signs warning visitors off the grass - those benches are for residents only - but it's perfectly fine to head through to the riverside terrace where the plaques are. And Today With Des and Mel.
I was quite impressed by the information board here, which it turns out is because all the text is taken (with credit) from the Twickenham Museum website. And Harry Hill’s TV Burp. I was less impressed by the presentation of the plaques, equally spaced along a low brick wall between a lifebuoy and a glass lift. And Men Behaving Badly. I doubt the dead end path is much used by residents, indeed having seen a few I don't believe they're the type who enjoy light entertainment offerings so probably get no kick out of living on the site of some of ITV's greatest triumphs. And the Morecambe & Wise Show. Like BBC Television Centre and now LWT's South Bank Studios the future of our broadcasting heritage is increasingly as somewhere the average viewer will never live.
